Survival Instinct
by ornamental-reciprocity
Summary: During her first day on the surface, an accident separates Zelda from Impa. On her own in a dangerous world, Zelda must learn to fend for herself, decide who to trust, and discover a whole new world. But first thing's first: Can surface trees eat someone?
1. Chapter 1

The world exploded. That was the only word Zelda had for it. One second it had been peaceful. Well, she wouldn't say peaceful exactly, but it had been less terrifying. Her heart had stopped pounding. Her words were coming out in complete sentences again. And, even if she was more scared than she had ever been in her whole life, she could say with a reasonable amount of certainty that she had felt maybe a little hopeful. Maybe. Then it all went to hell.

She had been walking with her newfound companion at the time, a woman who was still young, although she seemed much older. The woman, who had introduced herself briskly as Impa, was tall and wiry. Her face was angular, with a harsh chin and heavily slanted eyebrows. Her eyes had a hardened look about them, filled with an alertness and anger that Zelda both appreciated and feared. The introduction had been quick and business-like and the two had walked in silence ever since.

The two of them had been making their way through something Impa called a forest, although to Zelda, it seemed just like a lot of trees. Then again, maybe that's what a forest was- just a bunch of trees gathered together. The surface really was an alarming place if they needed a whole separate word just to describe the amount of trees present. Suddenly, Zelda had an alarming thought. What if the world was nothing but trees? Trees everywhere, growing for miles, hundreds of feet high. Maybe she'd never have an unobstructed view of the sky again? Did that mean that she was permanently trapped down here, locked beneath a canopy of leaves? She found herself suddenly biting her thumb nail, an old habit, as she looked at the wooden behemoths on all sides of her. Trees had always seemed so harmless. Of course those were sky trees. Sky trees, the right kind of tree. These surface trees, who's to say what they might do. Could a surface tree eat a person? It was possible.

Then Zelda had to bring herself back to the matter at hand. Impa had informed her, or rather, glossed over the fact that there was someone after her. A demon, it was called. Whatever that thing was, she should probably be worrying about it, not the trees. Plants were probably the same everywhere. Besides, they didn't look angry.

"Just trees," Zelda whispered to herself, "Just trees."

"What?" Impa asked in her harsh voice. Zelda wasn't sure if she meant to be scary, or it was just how she had been raised, but, in spite of herself, Zelda quickly lowered her head in a gesture of submission.

"It's nothing," she answered. Impa studied her curiously, before shrugging it off with a grunt. She continued walking, her silent footsteps plotting a clear course through the soft ground. She didn't look back to see if Zelda was following. It was already understood: Zelda would obey her directions.

And she did obey, following carefully in the path the older woman had laid out before her, just in case there were traps lurking in the brush for her if she should stray. She watched Impa's back as she walked, the smooth confidence, the rigid strength in her shoulders. It was an impressive effect, and one that entirely alarmed Zelda when she stopped to think about it. She could see the power in Impa's every motion and wondered what would happen if she tried to run. Impa swore she was there to protect her, but that didn't mean much. Zelda didn't doubt that, if it came down to it, the woman could drag her, maybe even carry her, where they needed to go. And so Zelda followed obediently, carefully, waiting for a change in the winds that would show her what to do or give her some options.

That change in the wind came in the form of a bright light. Impa had been climbing ahead of her, pulling herself up a rock more than half her height. Zelda had made a move to follow. Her left leg had just touched the stone when all of the sudden the world was illuminated ten times brighter. There was a bang, too, but Zelda couldn't hear it. All she could hear was a high pitched ring, a leftover of her deafened ears. Besides that the world was silent.

The force of the explosion sent both of them backwards. Impa's body was flung from the top of the rock. She flew through the air and was collided hard with the trunk of a tree. Her head snapped back and her vision went blurry. She struggled to right her balance and fell again, unable to get her limbs to function as she expected them to.

Zelda, fortunately, had not so far to fall. The explosion sent her backwards, but since she was already on the ground, it merely dragged her through the dirt a dozen feet. She was standing in moments, although her back was cut up and her dress bloody.

She blinked in confusion, trying to see past the spots in her vision. It was at that moment, unable to hear her companion's desperate cries of "your grace", unable to see the woman's contorted frame, that Zelda made a terrible, desperate decision. She let her instincts take over, and she ran.

She left the path, charging into the nearby forest. She dodged trees, ducked branches, lost all sense of direction. It didn't matter to her where she was going as long as she was going away. Her breath came in wheezing gasps, as she slowly leaned forward, one hand on the painful stitch in her side. But she couldn't stop, she just couldn't bring herself to stop. Stopping meant thinking, planning. Running was just running. It was all she knew how to do, but she knew how to do that very well.

Or, rather, she thought she did. But the ground in her sky-bound home had always been solid. It didn't move of its own accord and sneak its way across her path. Zelda had never expected it to, so she wasn't paying much attention when a shrub decided to squeak in front of her. She noticed too late what had happened. Her left foot hit the moving shrub hard and she was flung forward. The girl landed on her stomach, but caught herself with her arms before her face collided with the ground. One of her wrists bent backwards painfully, but it still held her weight. Cautiously, she turned around to see what had come into her path, just in time to see the little creature stand up.

Part of it was a plant, that was obvious. There was a clump of leaves growing from its back and there was even a stem growing from the top of its head. The other part of it, though, was furry, and had legs and arms that seemed much too small for its body. Its head poked up slowly and glanced side to side. It spotted Zelda at exactly the same moment that she spotted it. Stupidly, the only thought that worked its way into her head was 'Oh gods, their plants are evil!'

She screamed. Unbeknownst to her, still unable to hear after the explosion, the little creature was screaming, too.

She crawled away backwards, too anxious to put distance between herself and this monster, whatever it was. She managed to move back a few feet, but she was not as careful as she should have been. Too scared to think properly, she didn't look behind her, and, as a result, didn't notice that the ground was slanted. Her already painful wrist made contact with the ground and slid, giving way beneath her. Suddenly, she pitched backwards, sliding and rolling into a hole that had somehow formed at the base of a tree, underneath some of the roots. Quickly, she struggled to right herself, kicking ineffectively until her head was above ground. It was difficult; the hole was tight and she could barely maneuver. The whole process seemed to move infuriatingly slowly, and by the time that she had repositioned herself, she was sure that the creature would be inches away from attacking.

It seemed, however, that the creature was just as anxious to get away from her. It turned away from her as quickly as possible, and fled. It was much more nimble than her. However, the creature had barely traveled a half dozen feet, before it slid to a stop. It slowly began to back towards her, trembling yet again. Zelda squinted, but couldn't identify what it was the creature had seen, but apparently it was bad, because in a second, the little creature spun around and dove towards her, doing its absolute best to burrow itself underneath her.

This time she managed to hold in her scream as the small furry thing wiggled around, trying to slip under her stomach. The best she could figure, it was trying to hide beneath her. And she very quickly saw why.

Coming through the a gap in the trees was as strange a creature as Zelda had ever laid eyes on. It was red, covered in incredibly small scales, like the skin of a lizard. It walked on two legs, like a human, and wielded an terrifyingly large blade in its hand, but it could never be mistaken for a person. Its face was too bulbous. Its eyes were too large, made up of alternating rings of green and red. Two shiny, golden loops hung from its unnaturally long, floppy ears. Wrapped around its body was a brown vest, and simple brown pants, but they looked significantly worse for the wear. In fact, the pants only seemed to stay up because of a belt which had, to Zelda's horror, what appeared to be a skull as a buckle. Finally, the creature wore and unusually clean felt hat upon its head covering its uneven, white hair, but even that didn't completely hide the sight of two horns that poked from its skull.

Zelda's scream caught in her throat and came out as a squeak. She thanked the goddesses for that. Her mouth hung open and her eyes widened in distress. 'What the hell is that thing?' she wondered, but was unable to speak. Was this the demon Impa had mentioned? The creature took lurching, inhuman steps, seemingly searching for something. It paused for a few seconds and its blue tongue lolled out of its mouth, before it resumed its journey. If it took a few more steps it was sure to spot her, with her bright yellow hair and obnoxiously pink dress. If only there were a place to hide, or a way to camouflage herself. Suddenly, Zelda felt herself having the urge to copy the little furry creature beneath her and try to crawl under it. Zelda gasped in surprise as she realized her only hope. She couldn't crawl under that thing, but she could do the next best thing.

Rolling to the side, she took her weight off of the cowering brown creature, allowing one of her hands to swipe in and grab it by the leaves, yanking hard. The creature was nearly half her height and fairly heavy, forcing Zelda to use her other hand to get a solid grip. The thing was struggling valiantly, trying to get back into its hiding place, but Zelda held firm. She repositioned her hands until she had the majority of the creatures bulk firmly in control. Then, using her legs to push herself and the creature up, she shoved the little thing, leaf side first, into the opening at the top of the hole.

The creature wiggled in protest, but Zelda shook her head emphatically, mentally pleading with the creature to keep still. Either it got the message or else it sensed the red monstrosity was scarily close, because it stilled and quieted. She offered up a silent prayer of thanks.

The monster was close now. So close that she could smell the stink on its clothes. She peered through the leaves on the furry creature, and she could just make out the worn, leather boots the creature wore, with the heels so overused that they had worn out completely.

Zelda could only pray that the disguise was as convincing from the outside as she thought it would be. If all went according to plan the creature would see only the green leaves from the outside. It would assume it was just a bush. With any luck, it wouldn't even notice the hole beneath it. It would just keep moving.

The monster paused in front of their hole. Zelda wanted to clap a hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming, but both of her hands were struggling to hold the little creature in place. Instead, she did the next best thing, clamping her lips tightly together and biting down hard on them, using the pain as an intense reminder to keep quiet.

For an eternity she sat there, her arms shaking from the weight, tasting blood in her mouth, before those boots finally moved again. They moved away. Nonetheless, even when she could no longer see the monster any more, she didn't move. It wasn't until her arms threatened to give way that she slowly began to shift the little creature to the side and peer around it. The monster was gone, and there were no others in the immediate vicinity. At last she opened her mouth and took a deep breath, before releasing the little creature in her arms. It leapt to its feet and she expected it to run away, but instead it stood in front of her curiously.

She watched it for a while, tense, waiting for it to make a move, but the move it finally chose to make surprised her. It started to hop up and down, while waving its arms. She jerked back a moment in surprise before realizing that the gesture looked playful. Squinting hard, she also realized that its unusually tiny mouth was moving. Was it talking to her?

Zelda tried very hard to listen, but all she could hear was a ringing in her ears. But the little creature was still going and finally Zelda held up and hand to get its attention. "I can't hear you," she told it, gesturing to her ears and covering them, trying to make it understand in case it didn't speak her language. "There was an explosion, and I can't hear anything." She shrugged and shook her head by way of apology, but she couldn't be sure if the creature understood her. It didn't seem like it had stopped talking.

Suddenly, the creature hopped again and dashed off into the woods. Zelda expected that that was the last she would be seeing of it, and was considering climbing out of the hole, when suddenly the creature came back, carrying and armful of leafy branches. It dumped down its load in front of the hole and set about arranging them in front of the opening. When the creature went to grab a rock, Zelda almost leapt out of the hole, to escape before it sealed her in, but suddenly she realized what the creature was trying to do: it was camouflaging the hole for her. It was keeping her safe.

She took another hard look at the furry creature, who still seemed to be babbling to itself. It didn't seem so afraid of her anymore, and she supposed that meant she didn't need to be quiet so afraid of it. Now that she thought about it, the thing was kind of cute, if you could get past the whole half-plant thing.

The creature's camouflage was almost complete, with only a tiny gap left at the top. It gave Zelda one last reassuring hop before it closed off her hole completely from the outside world. After a few moments, when it didn't seem like the creature was coming back immediately, Zelda relaxed. Now that her heart beat had calmed down and she wasn't scared for her life in the immediate future, the tears started pouring from her eyes. It wasn't just the fear, though she was sure that would have been enough to drive her to tears. It was the pain also.

Once she paused to think about it, she realized that her entire back stung, from having dirt in the hole rubbed into open wounds. Her wrist felt like it was sprained. Gingerly, she tested it out, putting a little bit of pressure on the joint. She hissed in pain and let go. With her other hand, she felt her face. Her fingers came back bloody and she was sure that there were scratches all over her face. Her knees were skinned. Her stomach still had a nasty, tender bruise on it from when she had originally fallen off her loftwing. Add that to the fact that she still couldn't hear and Zelda was not in a very good place.

She lay her head down in the dirt in despair. So this was the surface. This was her childhood dreams come to life. Of course, her childhood dreams didn't usually involve tornadoes. Or explosions. Thinking back on the explosion, though, Zelda wasn't entirely sure she regretted that it had happened. Impa swore that she had been there to protect her, but how could Zelda know if that was true or not? Sure, she would rather be with Impa than whatever that red thing was, but she shouldn't just blindly trust the first person she met.

All the same, though, Zelda didn't know what to do now that she was on her own. She had never been on her own in her life. Skyloft was such a small place, there was nowhere to go. Zelda had never even thought it odd. Sure, there were places where she could get a few moments of solitude or respite, but she was used to the constant buzz of human life around her. Even in the vast emptiness of the sky, there were always birds flying to and fro. So many, in fact, that if a person lost their footing and fell off of Skyloft they were always caught on the way down by some passerby. That was just the way things were.

Now Zelda was utterly alone, for the first time in her life not even within shouting distance. She couldn't even see her home through the cloud cover. She fell and no one caught her, and now she was lost. Lost, possibly forever, on an endless rock with furry little half-plants and a strange woman and something called a demon all after her. And here she was, hiding in a hole.

For a student of the Knight Academy, a student who was supposed to be prepared for exactly this sort of thing, she was pretty useless. Zelda shifted around until her face was pressed into the dirt. Dirt. At least that was the same down here as it was up in the sky. And it was where she belonged. She deserved to die in a hole. For gods' sake, she was supposed to be stronger than this. But she wasn't.

She knew that she should climb out of the ground, get herself a sturdy branch or something, and try to whack her way past whatever those creatures were. Or she should go and climb a tree and get a view for the surrounding countryside. She should plan her next move. Or seek out Impa. Maybe try to leave subtle clues. She should be doing a hundred things, but she wasn't getting out of her hole. Not then, not ever. The very thought of exposing herself to those creatures, whatever they were, had her trembling to her very core. No, she was a coward. She hid from trouble. And now, she was going to die in a hole, hiding behind some branches. She closed her eyes in frustration and fear. 'Better get used to the darkness,' she thought, 'It's the last thing I'll ever see.'

When the branches were suddenly pulled aside and light flooded her little hole, Zelda could have cried. Partially out of relief and partially out of frustration. Couldn't she even resign herself to death correctly? She opened her eyes and looked up at her savior. It was the little, brown, furry guy again. This time it was holding berries.

She held back a groan. She wasn't hungry. She was too miserable to be hungry, something she hadn't even known was possible until that day. But the little guy seemed eager, if a plant-animal can be eager, so she shifted into something resembling a sitting position and made room for the little creature to scoot inside the hole a little, so its own natural camouflage protected them once again.

It held out the berries to her, and she reluctantly accepted a hand full. "I don't know if you can understand me," she whispered, "but thanks."

The creature bobbed in appreciation, and Zelda assumed that meant it had understood her. She wished she could think of something more to tell it, but there wasn't much to say. She didn't really feel like explaining why she was here, and, if she couldn't hear its responses, there wasn't much use in asking it questions.

Instead, she popped a few berries into her mouth. The juice burst over her tongue and instantly she perked up a little. They were sweeter than she expected, with only tiny little seeds. She turned a few more over in her fingers and examined the little, red berries. It took her a moment, but finally she recognized them. They had them on Skyloft, too, but they were so rare they were never eaten raw.

No, the children used to collect them and hand them over to Bertie, the potion maker. He'd pay a twenty rupees for every bowlful of berries, a lucrative sum for any ten year old. Although Zelda didn't understand the fineries of potion-making, she knew that Bertie surrendered the berries to his wife, Luv, who would use them to make what she had strangely dubbed "heart potion". It was an unusual choice of name, but Zelda couldn't deny that it was good at what it claimed to do: restore energy and accelerate healing. She wondered if the berries had the same type of effect. Her wounds were feeling tingly, but not quite so painful, so that was a good sign.

It was funny, but after eating the berries, it seemed like there would be no more claiming that she wanted to die. It felt like her internal schoolteacher had just gone off and was scolding in her head, "Now there will be no more of that Miss Zelda." She smiled at the thought of having a personal professor Horwell. It was the first happy thought she had had all day. Amazing what a good meal could do. Her smile faded as she hoped that this happiness wouldn't wear off when the berries did.

The little creature stood up and shuffled out of the opening, gesturing up towards the sky. Past the layers of leaves, the sky was a deep blue, bordering on black. Zelda blinked in confusion. Was it night already? How was that possible? Had she really been gone from her home a full day? But, now that the little creature had pointed it out, Zelda's eyelids were drooping a little. The day had been beyond exhausting.

She thought the creature was signaling that it wished to leave. Hoping that it would replace the camouflage thatch before it left, Zelda gave it a wave of the hand as a sort of permission to leave, before she remembered that she could still talk, even if she couldn't hear.

Shaking her head a little at her own stupidity, Zelda whispered to the little creature, "If you want to go, that's fine. I won't make you stay. Thank you for all your help."

The creature just shook its head in reply, gesturing again at the sky, this time in an alarmed sort of way. It was as though it was saying it didn't want to leave. Maybe the woods weren't safe at night? Of course, they weren't that safe in the day time, either.

"Unless," Zelda began hesitantly, "You want to stay?"

The creature jumped up and down enthusiastically, which Zelda could only take for a yes. She pushed herself to one side of the hole as the little creature burrowed in beside her. Its fur pressed up against her face, tickling her nose a bit. The creature was soft and warm, and, although she couldn't say she entirely trusted it, it comforted her to have a warm body with her.

With one hand she pushed the camouflaging branches back over the opening, marveling at how the device had all stayed together in one piece. Truly, this creature, whatever it was, was a genius. As darkness washed over them, she closed her eyes. That night, she fell asleep feeling the soft snores of a furry half-plant wash over her neck. In a way, it was more than she ever could have hoped for.

* * *

><p>When Ghirahim heard the news, he wasn't sure if he should be pleased or not. Just in case he shouldn't be, he incinerated one of the two messengers before it had finished delivering the news. Some people called this overreacting. He preferred to think of it as a preemptive strike.<p>

He turned to the the remaining messenger, a quivering bokoblin which had adopted an obsequious bow in the doorway, until its nose was practically touching the dark, stone floor. "You're sure it was her you saw?" he asked, rather enjoying the way his voice echoed through the room. It leant a rather impressive effect to his speech. Someday, he work out a lighting system, too. He always thought it would be much more dramatic if he was lit from behind. Or beneath. He hadn't decided yet.

"Yes, sir," the creature answered in a rasping tone, still holding the uncomfortably low bow. It was cruel of him to make it speak the common tongue, he knew, but he felt it gave a sort of elegance to the affair that was generally difficult to achieve with demonic underlings. All the same, the shivering creature in front of him spoke as if he were trying to crush rocks with his teeth as it spoke.

"It couldn't have been anyone else?"

"With all due respect, my Lord, we don't get many humans in these woods. She's the first we've seen in a long while." Ghirahim smiled when he heard this. This was exactly why he had spared this messenger, not the other one. Such a large vocabulary, and a firm grasp of grammar. That and its bowing skills were unmatched. It was hard to come by in that species. Such was Ghirahim's thought process at the time that he scarcely paid any attention to the bokoblin's reasoning. It wasn't a very good reason, anyway. Surely some unfortunate human must have made the trip down here.

Granted, it would be a little hard to identify the body after the collision, but he was sure that they must have seen it happen sometime.

"Yes, yes, very well. Get out." He delivered this speech in such a monotonous tone of voice that the creature didn't realize it had been issued an order for nearly five whole seconds. It backed out of the room, still doubled over, while simultaneously attempting to bow even further in recognition of its dismissal. At one point, its forehead actually collided with the floor tile, something Ghirahim would have found amusing if he weren't already distracted.

So the bokoblins had seen that servant of the goddess- oh, what was her name?- traveling through the woods. But more importantly, she was traveling by herself. Her charge, the spirit maiden, was nowhere to be found. From what he knew of this woman, which was a surprising amount considering he couldn't for the life of him remember her name at that moment, she would never leave the girl alone. If the girl wasn't by her side, then the woman would be tracking her closely, no more than ten feet away (she was extremely skilled at stealth- the girl would never notice her). That meant only one thing: she had lost the spirit maiden.

As the ashes of the first messenger on his floor reminded him, that could be good or bad. He knew where the servant of the goddess was, so it would be so simple to find the girl if they hadn't been separated. But, at the same time, now the spirit maiden was on her own, without protection. Completely defenseless. If he could just find her, she would be his for the taking, no resistance, no nothing. She would be simply prey for his demonic horde.

If he could just find her. But the world was big. He had had a plan to track the girl by following major landmarks, places where, mythologically speaking, she would be more likely to go. But, without the servant of the goddess to lead her, there was no guarantee that she would visit any of these places.

So there was one perfectly well thought out plan out the window. With a snap of his fingers he summoned a strange, diamond shaped crystal out of thin air, as he so enjoyed doing, and send it flying towards the window, where it impaled a passing keese. He smiled as the bat's body turned to smoke. Stress relief at its finest.

His anger temporarily quenched, he cast his mind back to the plan at hand. If he couldn't predict her movements, then he was going to have to lure her out somehow. But how does one lure out a lost girl? It would take some planning. It would have to be subtle, or she'd never go for it. She would be too scared to come out of hiding for just anything.

He snapped his fingers as he had a sudden realization. Impa. That was the woman's name. He simply must remember that in the future. It was difficult to effectively mock a person without their name. For one thing, you couldn't use any name-based puns. He thought himself rather skilled with puns, and it would be a shame not to be able to showcase his talents. After all, this was the moment when his existence found meaning. He wanted to be his best.

He had a feeling his was going to need his best very soon. After all, how hard could it be to find one girl? He'd probably be finished within the week. A thousand years of effort, maybe more, were coming to a head right before him. It was going to be a marvelous stage show, and he did so love directing it all from backstage. All the pieces would come together. He would make them. He would have the girl. He would destroy her.

With this thought cheering his mind, he set about on a much more important task. 'Impa,' he thought to himself, 'what rhymes with Impa?'

* * *

><p><strong>Advanced warning<strong>: this is an obnoxiously long authors note with very little in the way of useful information. Feel free to use the following couple of paragraphs to think about other, more interesting topics such as alternative uses for herring or whether or not empty tin cans can be filled with rocks and repurposed as paper weights. Are you mentally prepared? Good. Commence authors note now:

Hey, guess who has way to much time? Hint: It's the person who's published two chapters in as many days for no apparent reason. I'm going to assume that you have guessed correctly that the answer is in fact me, and praise you on your guessing skills.

You have excellent guessing skills.

So, this is a little weird to be writing this. I'm usually a proponent of finishing the game first, before you try to write about it. But I'm almost done and gosh darn it this game is long. It's like you go through a desert to reach a mining facility and then go through the mining facility to reach another desert and then go through that desert to reach the temple which you can't get into, so you go back through the desert to a different part of the mining facility, but you can't get into that either, so you go through the desert again to open the door to the mining facility, which you have to go through the finally reach the darn temple which it turns out doesn't actually have anything in it.

Seriously?

Anyway, then I wrote this, for some reason. I've decided that I don't like Ghirahim because he is inconsistent between scenes in the game and that bothers me. And then when he is consistent, he's very flamboyant, and that's extremely difficult to mimic. Also he keeps licking his sword which is kind of freaking me out, though you do have to wonder if he's ever cut his tongue on that thing.

Oh, also, Zelda will not stay deaf. Thought about, but I don't know enough about hearing loss to pull it off effectively. And research takes too long. It took me a solid hour of looking to discover if someone can recover from temporary hearing loss on their own (Yes, but if it doesn't happen fairly quickly, it probably isn't going to happen).

Okay, I will stop writing this obnoxiously long authors note. As always, read, review, enjoy...

Till next time,

Ornamental Reciprocity


	2. Chapter 2

I don't usually do author's notes at the beginning of a chapter, but I felt like I should say something. Thank you to everyone who reviewed and favorited, etc. It was super exciting because I didn't have internet access for a few days and then I came back and my inbox was just full of emails from ff. For a few minutes, I thought my inbox was broken. But it wasn't. And that was an awesome feeling.

For those of you who reviewed, thank you so much. Please continue to give me feedback in the future. I do enjoy it. Now I'll stop talking and get on with the story.

* * *

><p>When Zelda first woke, as was her routine, she tried to swing her legs over the edge of the bed and drop to the floor. She had done this every morning, without fail, for six years. This time, however, it didn't work quite as expected. Her legs kicked the sleeping creature beside her, eliciting a sharp squeal of pain. Her head collided with the ceiling above her. Her arms flailed into the wall. Suddenly, Zelda had the very intense feeling of being trapped, and she struggled with all her might, flailing in random directions, desperate to escape. The little creature panicked and tried to escape, trying to pull itself out of the hole. The movement only scared her more, and she continued to struggle for all she was worth, grabbing onto anything she could, which unfortunately included a hefty patch of the creature's fur.<p>

Then she remembered where she was. She stilled her limbs, looking at the trembling creature who was expending all of its energy in trying to escape her grasp. "I am so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you," she whispered apologetically before she realized that she still had a firm grip on the creature's fur. "Oh, sorry," she gasped, releasing it quickly.

The creature continued to struggle until it finally pulled itself free. It leapt from the hole in the ground and stood some four feet away. Zelda felt a sudden twinge of guilt as she saw the ruffled fur of the creature and the spooked look on its face like it had been betrayed. But it didn't flee into the rest of the woods. It stopped to look back at her, which she hoped was a good sign.

"Please don't be mad at me," she begged, clasping her hands in front of her pleadingly. It didn't seem convinced. She tried to climb out of the hole, to comfort the poor thing, but it leapt backwards when she moved, squealing again. She quickly threw her hands up in a gesture of surrender and sank back into the hole.

"Alright," she continued, a twinge of panic edging into her voice as she watched her only ally slink away, "I won't come out if you don't want me to. It's just, you're the closest thing I've made to a friend since I got here." These words seemed to do the trick, for the creature's gaze visibly softened and it cautiously began to pick its way back towards the girl. She sighed in relief and allowed herself to relax.

"It's alright," the creature answered her. Zelda's head shot back up as she stared at the creature in surprise. It had talked. It hadn't talked before. Was that normal? Then she caught herself and remembered that it had been talking before, she just couldn't hear it. She laid a hand over her heart in relief, before she realized exactly what that entailed.

She could hear. Experimentally, she snapped her fingers by each of her ears. They were both working. There was still a slight ringing noise, which had given her a massive headache, but being able to hear was completely worth it. She laughed in delight, an action which frightened the little creature even more. It started to edge away again. It was nearly ten feet away before Zelda stopped laughing and noticed what had happened.

"Oh, please don't," she begged, reaching out to stop it. "I didn't mean to scare you. It's just I can hear again."

The creature stopped and reluctantly began the return trip back to the hole. When it had covered about half the distance, it paused and asked her. "You're sure you can hear?" It's voice was high and squeaky, unsurprisingly, but also unexpectedly dignified for such a timid creature.

"I'm sure," she answered.

"So, no more surprises."

"Hopefully."

"No more flailing and kicking?"

"None."

"Or screaming?"

"Was I screaming?" she asked, trying to remember if she had done that.

"I thought you said you could hear." The creature squeaked and took another step back.

"I can. I can," she insisted, wondering why she had to defend her position when the very fact that they were talking should have proved that.

"Then what do you call what you were just doing. That noise." The creature made a strange, high pitched wheezing sound, which, after a few moments, Zelda recognized as a very poor approximation of laughing.

"That's not screaming. It's laughing. It's a good thing, I promise. Don't you laugh?"

"Of course not. It doesn't sound like a good thing. It sounds like the noises those monsters make and I'm not entirely sure now that you're not one of them." The creature puffed up its chest and adopted an expression that she was sure was meant to look intimidating. The effect was considerably lessened by the fact that the creature was visibly shaking from its ankles all the way to the top of its head. "And let me warn you, if you are a monster. You'll regret messing with me."

Zelda looked at the creature in disbelief, torn between a need to win this creature over and the nearly overwhelming desire to laugh again. Instead, all that came out was a quiet snort, before she slammed a hand over her mouth, holding her laughter inside.

"I'm serious," the creature continued. "One day you'll be walking by a harmless plant, and then I'll leap out at you. I can do it, you know. Watch." The creature doubled over so its plant side was facing up. Zelda had to admit, the camouflage was an impressive effect, or it would have been, if she hadn't known exactly where the creature was to begin with.

Swallowing the last of her giggles, she called out to the creature. "I believe you. Come on out." The creature made a harrumph noise, and stood up, standing as tall and broad as it could.

"You cross me, monster, you'll get a lesson you'll never forget."

"I'll take your word on that."

"You better." It shook a finger at her to emphasize the point.

"But how can you think I'm a monster after last night?" she asked. The creature patted its still ruffled fur in response.

"That was before the kicking and grabbing," it reminded her. "And before I knew you could make that horrible 'laugh' noise."

"These monsters you're worried about... are they like that creature we saw last night?" It nodded its agreement. "But, I don't look anything like that thing."

This seemed to catch the creature off guard and it paused for a few moments to think of its answer. "They come in different types. I've seen red ones and Oolo swears he saw a blue one. There have even been rumors." The creature looked side to side conspiratorially before raising a hand to its mouth and whispering, "It's been said that they sometimes come in green." It leapt back after saying this, like it had revealed some very secret information.

"But I'm not green or blue," she insisted.

"But there might be more types. Who's to say they don't come in spotted?"

She looked at the creature in surprise. Spotted? Since when was she spotted? She looked down at her arms as she tried to figure out what it meant. The skin on her arms was covered in red patches. Blood, she realized. She felt as though her heart had plunged into her stomach. Was all that blood really hers?

It was dried, but most of the wounds were still fresh. The ones on her back stung when she bent. Curiously, however, the deepest wounds seemed to have healed up completely overnight. It must have been the berries, she thought. Apparently, they maintained some of their healing properties and they went for the worst injuries first. So, although the dried blood suggested she was in pretty bad shape, and truth be told, she was, the wounds weren't nearly as life threatening as she believed.

Or at least, she managed to convince herself of this fact. After all, if the injuries were life threatening, she'd be dead. She wasn't dead, so it couldn't be that bad. With these thoughts in mind, she turned her mind to answering the creature's question.

"Oh, these... these spots aren't normal. They're bad."

"Are they monsters?" The creature asked, looking closely at her as though she were a patient suffering from some exotic disease.

"No, no. They wash right off in water. It's just bad because it means that I've been hurt," she explained, wondering if these strange, non-laughing creatures were also immune to bleeding.

"Oh." The creature bobbed its head, accepting the explanation, although seeming perhaps a little wary, nonetheless. A moment of silence passed.

"I'm sorry," Zelda interjected, feeling strangely guilty for breaking the quiet, "You must have told me this before, but what is your name?"

The creature did a little hop and squeak of embarrassment before answering. "Machi. I'm Machi, the Kikwi."

"Machi," she repeated, rolling the word over in her mouth. "Machi the Kikwi." As she muttered the name, she couldn't help but wonder if Kikwi was a family name or a species, but strangely felt as though it would be rude to ask.

The little creature, Machi, was staring at her expectantly. She stared back for a few moments before she realized what it wanted. "Oh, I'm Zelda."

"Zelda the what?" it asked, leaving Zelda to wonder if it was tradition to introduce yourself by your name and your... tribe. She wasn't sure if she should answer with her last name or tell it she was a human, or none of the above. She settled for the ambiguous.

"Zelda of Skyloft," she informed Machi. It looked back in confusion, but decided to let the matter slip, for which she was extremely thankful.

It nodded as it considered her words. "I've never heard of a Skyloft before. They must be very good at hiding if I've never seen them."

Zelda smiled softly and pulled herself from the hole, relieved that Machi didn't flee. Stretching her sore muscles, she brushed a layer of dirt from her clothes and sat down. "We don't really hide," she tried to explain, "We live far away. None of us have ever been here before. I'm the first."

"Oh," Machi answered, seemingly saddened. "You're away from your nest?"

She smiled at the terminology, but nodded nonetheless. Machi leapt up with a pleasant squeak. "Perhaps you could make a new nest, here? Join the Kikwi? You already have a talent for hiding. You'll fit right in as long as you don't make that horrid laugh."

Zelda very nearly accepted. A home, a nest, that was all she needed. But as she opened her mouth and began to speak, she remembered Impa's words. Something was after her, some demon. For that matter, Impa was probably searching relentlessly for her, too. She didn't really know which was worse to have trailing her, but she was sure that she couldn't lead them straight to this little creature, or to its family. If Machi was any indication, this species was not a group of warriors. If a laugh could start it trembling from ankle to head, what could a demon do? So, reluctantly, she shook her head.

"Machi, I don't think that's such a good idea. You see there are... some... monsters after me."

No sooner had she gotten the words out than Machi had curled back to the ground, its plant half facing the air, hiding in plain sight.

"Machi?"

"Continue talking," Machi insisted, "I will listen. But, if there are monsters chasing you I would much prefer to be left undevoured."

Zelda blinked for a moment in surprise, and another moment in confusion as it seemed the remainder of this conversation would be spent talking with what appeared to be a plant. "Oh, alright," she at last stuttered out, "Like I was saying, there are some monsters, of a kind, that are trying to find me. I can't put you Kikwis in danger."

"I don't fear danger," Machi insisted, still hiding diligently. "I'm widely considered to be the bravest of all the Kikwi."

"Machi, you're pretending to be a plant so monsters won't eat you," Zelda reminded it skeptically.

"Yes, but I haven't hid in the trees yet. Most of the other Kikwi would have run off by now." It talked slowly, as though this ought to have been obvious. Zelda took a few more moments to blink off her surprise before she shrugged.

"Alright, if you're the bravest Kikwi around, maybe you can give me some advice. I'm looking for a way to get somewhere... into the sky." Zelda thought about these words very carefully, considered exactly what it was that she had opted to do. Impa had mentioned, in passing, that there were certain destinations on the surface where she should travel, but she hadn't said where. Impa had insisted that the less she knew, the better. That didn't leave Zelda with a lot of room to work.

If she could get to Skyloft, there was a library, and her father might know something of what to do next. She could prepare herself. Get a weapon, assemble the knights. Yes, going back home was definitely the safest option.

And it didn't hurt matters that she was terrified and truthfully wanted nothing more than for her father to hug her and take matters out of her hands.

"You're going to the sky? What's in the sky?"

"Something I need," she answered simply. Machi waited for her to elaborate, but she shook her head, repeating Impa's maxim. "The less you know, the better." She could feel dread creeping into her stomach as her thoughts suddenly turned somber. This creature, only by virtue of having stumbled into her path, was now in terrible danger.

"So you're not going to tell me anything?" it answered, seeming a little indignant that it was being left out of the loop.

She shook her head again. "Anything I tell you will give the monsters another reason to come for you."

"Alright then," Machi answered a little too quickly, "Tell me nothing. I am content knowing nothing." It followed this statement up with a few loud peeps and even waved its arms a little to emphasize its point, although, with its face still pressed to the ground, the effect was a little confused.

"Thank you. So do you know of a way? A way up into the sky?"

"I've never heard of reaching the sky... you could climb a tree," Machi suggested, "Some of those go pretty high."

Zelda shook her head in defeat. "I need to go higher. Much higher. Past the clouds."

"I don't know of anything higher," Machi insisted. Zelda slumped down, out of ideas. Suddenly, Machi seemed to have a thought and spoke again. "Unless you travel to the mountain."

"Mountain? What's a mountain?"

"It's a big piece of rock. Really big. Huge. I've never seen it, but I've heard that it even touches the sky."

Zelda perked up when she heard this. Even if this thing didn't quite break the cloud barrier, maybe she could signal a passing loftwing from there. They could lower a line, or something, and pull her up. "How can I reach it? Where is it?"

"It's not in the forest," Machi answered, slowly. "So you can't get there by land. There's a rumor that you can reach it by water, but I don't know much about it."

"A rumor?" Zelda asked, her heart sinking again. "A rumor's no good to me. There's absolutely no proof that it's true." Against her will, her mind wandered back to the many rumors that had followed the average Skyloft teenager, including a few rather unpleasant ones that had been spread about herself. Not one had any basis in fact.

Machi shook its head. "Kikwi are careful about rumors. We don't start a rumor for no reason. If you've heard someone whisper it, chances are it's mostly true."

"Are you sure you don't know anything about this water passage?"

"Kikwi don't swim much," it answered apologetically.

Zelda almost screamed in frustration. So close. "So then, what should we do?"

Machi almost proposed going to see Elder Bucha, before it remembered that Zelda didn't want the other Kikwi to know about her. That left just one option. One, rather unpleasant option. Reluctantly, Machi gathered his nerve. "There's a spirit somewhere around here, known as the water dragon. She might know."

"A water dragon?" Zelda asked, confused. She had never heard of a dragon before, but she knew a little about spirits. At least in the sky, the term "spirit" was relative. It very rarely meant ghost or apparition and more often meant a guardian of some kind. The sky had its own personal guardian, by the name of Levias, which she had seen a few times.

Levias was massive, with a big, flat head and flippers like wings that guided it through the air. In her mind, she tried to imagine a version of Levias made entirely of water, but such a thing didn't seem possible. Nonetheless, if it were possible, then maybe this water dragon could fly. Could it fly her back to the sky?

She shook her head, trying to stay on topic, not to give herself false hopes. They wouldn't pay off. Still, she knew nothing about this surface world. It was just possible enough that Zelda leapt to her feet.

"We're going to meet with this water dragon," she declared.

Machi shrunk a little at the declaration. It had never met the water dragon, and hoped to continue that record. There were stories, unpleasant stories about her. Theoretically, the water dragon was meant to be the guardian of the whole woods, but she distinctly favored the more... aquatic races. A Kikwi who showed up unannounced at her place to ask a boon was more likely than not to find itself dinner.

"Well then, Zelda of Skyloft, I wish you luck," it replied quickly, inching its way back towards the shrubs, its plant side still pointed skyward.

"You're not coming," she asked in surprise.

"Well, I wouldn't say not coming... except that... I have a rather urgent appointment. Over here. This way." It continued to edge away, forcing Zelda to quickly run around it and block off his retreat from behind. When it bumped into her legs it squeaked in surprise and seemed to shrink even more.

"Machi, I don't know where to go."

"Well, it's the water dragon, so I'd go find some water if I were you." It tried to slowly sidle its way around Zelda's legs.

"I don't know where that is. Machi, I don't know anything." She threw her hands up into the air, even though she knew it couldn't see.

"It's not hard. There's a lake about that way." It turned around until it was facing towards the south. "Go from there."

"Machi, I'll never get there alive, monsters or not. I don't know anything about this place."

"It's pretty intuitive," Machi answered dismissively. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

"No, Machi. It isn't and I won't. I mean... are there things like you every plant? Do the trees all move around and talk and stuff. Or is that just you?"

Apparently this statement was a shocking one to Machi, because, in spite of its own fears, it sat up suddenly to cast her a disbelieving look. "Do the trees talk? Did you just ask if the trees talk?"

"I just mean-"

"Why would the trees talk?"

"What I'm saying is-"

"Do the trees talk where you come from?"

"No," Zelda answered pleadingly, "What I'm trying to say is-"

"Then why would you think the trees would talk?"

"You talk."

"I'm a Kikwi, not a tree."

Zelda gave up trying to explain her thought process and just clasped her hands in front of her face, dropping to her knees, desperate. "Please, Machi. I'm begging you. I don't know this sort of thing. All of the rules about life around here, I've never learned them. I know nothing. You're the bravest of the Kikwi. Who better than you to help me?"

The Kikwi shuffled back a few inches. It could think of several Kikwi who would be better. Most every Kikwi in fact. Elder Bucha. Lopsa. Oolo. Plus a few unusually intelligent plants it thought might have had a better chance. Nervously, it replied, "Bravest may have been a bit of an exaggeration... And really, I'm more of the brains behind the operation."

"Machi, please. I helped you hide last night."

"Yes, but I wouldn't have been there in the first place if you hadn't fallen on me."

'Please," Zelda started, before an idea struck her. She stood up slowly and brushed the dirt from her dress. "Fine. I'll go alone. And you can go alone, too. Through the monster infested forest. By yourself."

This got Machi's attention very quickly. "Wait, wait, wait. Let's not be hasty here. Maybe you could walk me back home and then go find the water dragon."

"I don't really have the time for that. I have to find the water dragon and get back home myself. But I bet, if the water dragon is as powerful as it sounds, it might be able to drop you off home, safe and sound. And really, we'd probably have a better chance of surviving together than alone."

Machi made a funny growling noise as it considered this new development. At last it gave in, throwing its arms into the air in an exasperated manner. "Fine. Fine. We'll go to the water dragon. But then I'm going straight home, alright? No more of this 'adventure' nonsense."

"None. I promise."

"And no more 'laughing'," it reminded her.

"There won't be, I swear."

With a stubbornly defiant look on its face it took a few confident steps into the nearby foliage. However, within moments its bulk brushed against the nest of a bird, sending a robin fluttering past its face. Machi toppled backwards and rolled into a ball, quick to pull out its disguise. For a moment it waited cautiously before uncurling and checking to see if the coast was clear. Seeing Zelda's disbelieving expression, Machi did its best to recover what was left of its dignity and gestured to the girl.

"You go first," it whispered.

And so the reluctant pair began to pick their way through the bracket, past trees and bushes, on a desperate quest. A small spark of confidence was brewing deep in Zelda's chest. Just a tiny thing, but it was there. With Machi, however useless Machi may be, beside her, she felt that maybe she had a chance to get through this. They would find the water dragon. They would both get to go home.

With this tiny confidence putting a spring in her step, Zelda trudged on through the forest, fully unaware that she was walking straight into the belly of the beast.

* * *

><p>The assault was not going as planned. Although he had massive numbers of troops at his disposal, progress was horrifyingly slow going. It seemed that he had failed to take into account one small factor in his assault on the water dragon: all the water.<p>

At the moment, the demon lord was resting on a large rock, trying to enjoy the pleasant breezes that Lake Floria had to offer. He had been widely informed that it was a nice place to visit. Cooling winds, pristine water, and a lovely rock wall that surrounded the whole thing, making it feel like a secluded piece of paradise. A little bit of heaven left on the surface.

Or, it had been. Now the air was clouded with smoke. The water ran pink with blood. The water dragon's wrath had sent many of his soldiers flying straight into the lovely rock wall, which was now smeared red and black. A few unlucky souls had been flung so hard the impact had caused their bodies themselves to stick to the wall, leaving a ghastly imprint.

And yet, for all of this destruction, they had made almost no progress. He took a deep breath and leaned back, watching out of the corner of his eye as a few more of his demonic minions attempted to swim into the dragon's lair.

Ghirahim liked to call them brave, assuming brave was synonymous with stupid. They were muscle, but not brains. He marveled as another wave attempted to charge the water, trying to swim into the massive cavern, only to be hurled back by yet another huge wave of the water dragon's. The survivors, ran in again, this time brandishing swords, as though they could slash the water into submission.

He had to smile a little. They were trying their hardest. He would have given them points for effort, except they were dead already and the next group had taken their place. Was that the fifteenth or the sixteenth? He had lost track and that was just in the past hour.

It was bad enough that they had had to blow their way into the lake. The cursed dragon had put up some kind of seal around the whole place that they had had to break down. This had required the use of a makeshift bomb, built specially from some of the bomb flowers growing outside the sealed temple. Monsters were so commonplace now, the old crone inside, whoever she was, had never even suspected his presence. Although she claimed that she was there to guard the temple from evil, she wasn't doing a very good job. And bomb flowers grew back so quickly, there was no trace they had ever been there at all. It was a lovely deception.

Or, it would have been, if those fools hadn't lost the first bomb they made. It had gone rolling down some hill, and, although they had chased after it, the whole mess exploded in their faces. It was a shame those cretins had been blown up by their own bomb. He would have enjoyed punishing them. Morons, the lot of them. He had had to oversee the transport of the second bomb personally, which had lost him valuable time in searching for the spirit maiden.

His anger had very nearly gotten the better of him, which was why he had chosen to take a few moments to try to relax and enjoy the famous Floria sun.

With an absent minded glance at the sky, he supposed that he ought to call his soldiers off until he discovered a more effective strategy. But truthfully, he felt it was much more fun to watch them try again and again than it was to call it off. And he could brainstorm and still have a little entertainment. Nothing wrong with that.

It wasn't as if he were at a loss for troops. That was the thing about demonic hordes. They tended to come in... well... hordes. He wondered, vaguely, if any of the demons in his group had the foresight not to run into the lake. It would be interesting to see. Of course, he'd probably have to kill the creature for insubordination, but it was a curious thought, nonetheless.

The next group charged towards the lake and didn't even reach the shoreline before a blast of water knocked them off their feet. It was less powerful a blast than before. Did that mean the water dragon was getting tired? But the next shot of water disproved that theory, for it was the strongest by far that he had seen.

A huge wave of water suddenly loomed over everything, casting a shadow even over the rock where he lay. Quickly, he snapped his fingers, removing himself as far from the rock as possible, before the wave came crashing down.

The spot he chose to land was well into the forest, far enough away that there was no chance of getting hit by the splatter. He wasn't particularly fond of water. The place he had chosen was well shaded by a thick canopy of leaves and also had fairly good cover, with many ground level bushes to block his image from any onlookers.

He didn't know why he was so careful about stealth. He was all but sure that he could handle any creatures he might find in the woods. Still, extra caution never hurt anybody, he supposed. Nonetheless, the woods were just as empty as he expected, so he made to step out of his haven and walk back to the lake, when a glint of yellow caught his eye.

He turned instinctively, fully expecting it to be nothing but a brightly colored bird. Instead, what he saw almost made him gasp in surprise.

'It couldn't be,' he thought to himself. 'Why would she come here? The servant of the goddess was last seen up near the temple. Why would her lost charge come here?' And yet the proof was undeniable. He could see her, carefully picking her way through the thick trees. He could feel her presence, even from where he was standing.

It was the spirit maiden herself, seemingly oblivious to his presence, traveling with what appeared to be a Kikwi. She held tightly onto one of the Kikwi's arms, although he wasn't sure if this was to comfort herself or to keep the creature from running away. Both were equally likely. The girl looked a little worse for the wear, with blood across her arms and face. Her dress was in an equally horrid condition. Nevertheless, she was moving with strong strides, which he could only assume to mean that she was doing alright, although she did wince a little whenever a stray branch happened to brush her bloody back.

A part of him wanted to charge forward and seize the girl in that moment, but he restrained himself. He didn't know the extent of her powers, if she had any at all. She might be prepared for this ambush.

In a few hundred yards the girl would be in sight of the lake. That meant that she would be in sight of his monstrous legion, and that they would be in sight of her. The demons would attack, that much was without question. It was their instinct, even his orders couldn't override it. They would charge. She would either have to showcase her powers to defend herself, giving Ghirahim an understanding of her abilities or she would panic and flee back into the forest.

Stealthily he began to follow the girl. If she retreated, he would be there to catch her. If she attacked, he would wait until she had exhausted herself and move in before his hordes could kill her. His breath came quickly with anticipation. 'Could it really be this easy?' he wondered before shaking his head. He deserved something easy, after the disaster the day had been.

He crouched in wait, creeping forward as the girl and her little Kikwi friend approached his legion. With only seconds to, he stood up slowly, ready to run into the fray at a moment's notice. The confrontation was imminent. He licked his lips slowly as the girl took her last steps forward and brushed the last few branches aside.

She took a step out into the sunlight around the lake.

* * *

><p>Duh duh duh. (That was supposed to be dramatic music by the way). So there is chapter 2. I know it seems like it's moving a little fast, and it is, but this isn't it. Did I mention this will probably be a fairly short story? Not too short, but we're not talking epic here.<p>

Anyway, thank you again to all my reviewers and favoriters (yes, that is a word... now). Please continue to tell me what you think.

As always, read, review, enjoy.

'Till next time,

-Ornamental Reciprocity


	3. Chapter 3

The sight that met Zelda took her breath away, quite literally. She tried to breathe, or to scream, to make a noise of some kind, but all that came out was the tiniest of squeaks. It was enough.

There were hundreds of them. There had to be at least hundreds. Thousands? She had never had to estimate numbers that big before. All she knew was that there were more than she wanted there. They were just like the creature that she had seen the night before. Honestly, apart from immensely tiny differences between them they all looked about the same. She didn't want to get close enough to be able to see those tiny differences.

They all looked up practically in unison and they clearly detected her presence because they emitted a strange noise of recognition, not too unlike a squawk and yet unlike anything she had ever heard.

And then they were coming at her, a massive wave of red skin, brown leather, and shiny blades. She fully expected to die then and there. It was fortunate for her, however, that her companion had a lot of experience in being scared and knew exactly what to do. It spun on its heels and dashed into the woods, and Zelda, who was holding its hand in a death grip, was dragged with it.

They fled into the trees, dodging branches and trunks with their only goal to get away. Although she didn't dare look over her shoulder, she could hear the sounds of pursuit- apparently these creatures were not deterred at all by the trees. She kept her eyes carefully glued on the path in front of her. She couldn't risk tripping and falling again. Not this time.

She rapidly scanned the woods in front of her for threats, a habit that had been carefully instilled back in the academy. Even in the depths of her terror, she couldn't help herself. That was how she first saw him.

He was crouched down, but not relaxed. Rather, he looked poised, like he was about to spring to his feet. His hair was a ghostly white and his skin was unnaturally pale. He looked out at the world through black eyes, which were underlined by dark circles, the closest thing to color on his face. While his pointed ear would indicate that he came from Skyloft, she could tell, just by a glance that he didn't.

Perhaps it was something in the way he looked at her, but she could tell just by the sight of him that this was the demon. She knew then that Impa had been telling the truth and that this monster, whatever it was, was far worse than the woman could ever have been.

* * *

><p>She saw him. He could see it in her eyes. She looked beyond terrified, wild even. He had seen that look only in trapped animals. But that's what she was, really, a trapped animal. His horde on one side and himself on the other. He wondered which she thought was worse.<p>

She skid to a stop when she caught his eye, as though she knew instinctively not to get any closer to him. He wondered if that had to do with his appearance, or if it was a side effect of the power within her. It didn't matter. All that mattered was that she reach his hands, intact.

Her sudden stop wrenched the Kikwi's hand from her grasp and it continued charging through the woods without her, but the demon paid it no mind. It was beyond insignificant at this point. Now there was only the horde, the girl, and him.

He smiled at her and waved pleasantly. She took off running again. Dreadfully rude, he thought, as he stood up to begin pursuit.

* * *

><p>She couldn't run towards that man, that much was obvious, but she couldn't run back towards the monsters. She did the only thing she could think of and dashed off to the side, nearly slipping in her haste to turn. She heard the demon grunt in annoyance and take off after her, but she couldn't turn around to see him. There was no way to know how close he was, but it was obvious that he was too close for comfort.<p>

Her legs were long and she ran to her breaking point, covering ground faster than she had imagined possible. Branches whipped past her and scratched her already tender legs but she didn't care. She didn't care when she stubbed her toes on rocks or when she lost her balance and fell. She simply pushed herself off the ground and continued running. It was all she could do, but she knew, before she had gotten more than a hundred yards, that it wouldn't be enough.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw that some of the creatures, maybe five or six, had expected her to turn and were fast approaching from her right. She tried to give herself a burst of speed to power past them, but she had no energy left. In a few seconds they were in front of her, blocking her path.

The one in the lead charged forward, raising its blade above her head. She jumped back just in time. The creature gave a screech of annoyance and swung again, aiming for her midsection. She tumbled back once more. Now the other four that she could see had caught up to her and were moving to support the creature in the lead. They raised their weapons, too, but couldn't get in a decent swing before the first creature lunged forward, stabbing towards her stomach. She leapt back once more, out of the creature's range.

Suddenly, there was a tearing pain in her back. The air left her lungs and her mouth and eyes opened wide in shock. She didn't scream or cry, but tears began to roll down her face of their own accord. And yet she could see the blade the creature held in front of her. It had missed completely. 'How?' she wondered, using the last of her self-control to slowly glance over her shoulder.

What she saw there made her spirits sink. She had dodged the one blade, and in doing so, had impaled herself on another. This was the moment when she knew she should have screamed, but, in her shock, all she managed was a soft whisper of, "Oh." The creature behind her removed its sword from her skin, while blood poured from the wound. It didn't show against the creature's red skin, but the crimson wave was obvious to her.

She didn't fall to her knees, as she would have expected. Her knees didn't bend. Instead, her whole body fell backwards, into the creature's arms. It hadn't been expecting that, and immediately dropped her in surprise. She fell to the ground, a puddle of blood spreading out beneath her and being absorbed by the wet ground. It wasn't pain that she felt. More... emptiness. Her breath was coming in short gasps now, and she waited for the world to black out around her and for death to take her.

Instead, she heard a loud curse from behind her. Suddenly, the world was illuminated a bright orange color and the monsters around her all took a few steps back, stumbling over themselves to get away.

"Back to the lake! Get back to the lake, all of you." There was a voice, but Zelda didn't recognize it. Her vision was fuzzy and she couldn't quite see the speaker. But she heard the commotion as the monsters tried to escape, each faster than the other and none particularly successful.

"Shit," the voice whispered. "Shit. Shit. Shit." Her mind was slowing and she couldn't quite figure out why he was cursing. This was really quite relaxing after all. The darkness creeping into the corner of her vision was more soothing than anything else.

"Stay awake," the voice continued. It was forceful and angry. Two hands reached under her and flipped her over. A heavy pressure landed on her back and she closed her eyes in annoyance. She wished it would stop. It was very comfortable before. "Didn't you hear me? Damn it. I said, stay awake."

She didn't know why the voice was angry at her, but she didn't like it. It was with a small amount of spite and no small amount of relief, therefore, that she kept her eyes shut, relaxed her muscles, slipping gratefully into unconsciousness. The last thing she heard was the voice, that mean voice, swearing yet again.

Ghirahim was still swearing two hours and forty five minutes later, when the girl was still lying unconscious. His hordes could tell just by listening that this was bad. As he was a man who prided himself on maintaining a certain culture, a sense of dignity, it was rare for such vulgar language to pass his lips. It was easy enough to provoke him to homicidal rages, but to get him to curse like this, one had to be truly skilled. Whoever this girl was, it was plain that she was important.

Ghirahim paced around her limp body, stopping every few seconds to check her pulse or to prod her and see if she responded. There was nothing he could do, and he knew it, but the waiting was impossible.

He despised waiting, almost as much as he despised cursing. Now he was doing both and had been doing both for nearly three hours. His horde cowered near the edge of the lake, careful not to disrupt him. The unfortunate monster who had stabbed her, under what he had assumed were the Lord's orders, was suddenly grateful his identical appearance gave him a certain amount of anonymity. They waited with baited breath as he paced, all but certain that their doom was coming.

He had performed what medical treatment he could in the woods, and, when the bleeding slowed, had moved her down towards the lake, laying her face down on the rock where he had been lounging not so long ago. The bleeding had slowed and stopped with his efforts, but he didn't know nearly enough about healing to bring her back easily from the brink of death. He had called off the siege for the moment, knowing full well that he couldn't deal with the water dragon's resistance and care for the girl at the same time. Truthfully, he would have been much happier moving her to the sealed grounds right away, but he didn't know if he could fend off the old crone and watch the girl. For that matter, there was no telling what the journey would do to her health. Human anatomy was so unpredictable. And, if they managed to attract the attention of the servant of the goddess in the process, there was almost no chance of getting to the grounds alive. No, he'd just have to accept that there'd be no moving her until she had recovered some and he had a plan.

Once more, he leaned down and pressed his ear to her chest, just to hear the feeble heartbeat that meant that she was still alive. He still had a chance. Suddenly, he stood up and screamed in anger. Anger at his minions that couldn't tell the spirit maiden apart from any other prey. Anger at the idiot girl who landed on a blade. Hell, she practically jumped on it. And most of all, anger at himself.

Why had he run after her? Why didn't he just teleport? Did he think it would be more satisfying to take her down at a full sprint? What had he been thinking?

It wasn't often that he found himself doubting his own abilities. On the rare times when he did, it was often accompanied by a self-loathing that very easily translated into loathing of those around him. His hordes had learned long ago not to approach him when he was in this sort of mood.

He cursed a few more times and resumed his pacing. This waiting was endless. It was torture. Then he heard it.

It was a soft moan, barely audible, but he heard it. He dropped to the ground and lifted the girl's head up slightly. Her pale face was scrunched up in pain. That was good. For a moment she stilled again, and he feared it was merely a temporary change. But then she moaned again, louder this time, and her eyes fluttered a little. Slowly, they opened and he found himself looking eye to eye once again at the spirit maiden.

It was as if someone had flipped a switch inside of him. Instantly, with that one little glance, all of his plans were restored. He laughed loudly, something which was nearly frightened his minions as much as his screaming. He laughed that he had ever doubted himself. Laughed at the thought that this girl would foil him with something so simple as her death.

She would not escape that easily.

As if in response to his thoughts, the girl began to struggle to sit up, to move. Her movements were slow, pained. He smiled as she pushed the bulk of her weight off the ground. She very nearly succeeded in sitting, before he reached out and calmly pressed his fingers, hard, into the wound on her back.

The pain wasn't really so bad, but she screamed in surprise. Her arms buckled and collapsed under her weight. She fell, hard, back to the rock. He reached out and touched her hair, stroking it but also pressing firmly down, keeping her head down on the rock.

"Hush," he whispered. "You've had a shock and the bleeding only just stopped. It would be such a shame to make it start again."

He kept her head down, her cheek pressed to the cool rock, so he could not see her face or the fear in her eyes. Yet, he could hear it in her voice when she at last spoke. "What happened?"

"An accident," he answered, vaguely, knowing full well that it would do nothing to relieve her curiosity or her fear. Licking his lips, he waited for her to ask his name. He did so love to introduce himself. He had a whole speech prepared, just for occasions like this. In fact he had written separate speeches for introducing himself to the spirit maiden, her guardian, the water dragon, the rest of the pathetic humans, and almost everyone he could conceivably encounter. He had rehearsed them for quite a while until he sure he had them just perfect. It was a form of stress relief, he decided, and a well deserved one at that.

Much to his disappointment, however, she didn't ask who he was. She already knew. "You're him, aren't you?" she asked, her face still directed away from his.

"Who?" he asked, grabbing a small section of her yellow hair and twirling it idly between his fingers, admiring its shade in the light.

"I saw you earlier. You were in the forest."

Releasing the strand he held, he leaned down, until his face was almost her buried in her hair, until he was sure that she could feel his breath spreading across the back of her neck. "You know, you can find many things in a forest. The humans that used to inhabit this world told stories about young girls alone in the woods. They'd say that she could meet a wolf. You won't meet a wolf around here, though. But there are other monsters, much worse monsters, that you could meet any day. You should know. You've met the worst of them."

She jerked away from his touch and pushed herself up onto her elbows. When her face finally swiveled to face him, he expected to see her eyes wide with terror. Instead, her eyes were narrowed and her lips slowly curled into what he could only imagine was defiance.

"I know. I've already met a Kikwi."

Her words were so unexpected that he blinked in surprise. His mouth hung open for a split second before he recovered his composure. Then, in spite of himself, he burst out laughing. When at last he was done, he inspected her face again and answered. "Oh. I see it now."

"See what?"

"I could feel her aura this whole time, of course, but I could never see her face in yours. You're so tiny, so fragile. I never imagined... Until just this moment." Unbidden, memories flashed across his mind. Memories of the goddess, in her golden armor, her face shining with righteous fury as she swept across his legions. He remembered the look in her eyes. It was one of only two times in his life when he had ever felt fear.

He had always wondered how such a powerful creature had become such a weak girl. But now, just now, he saw that same strength in this girl. To his eternal shame, it shook him a little. That was, of course, before he realized that strength of character very rarely translated into physical strength. She could glare at him and insult him all day long, but if he wanted to, he could crush her then and there. He repeated this to himself to keep his emotions in check.

Of course, he considered, the wording wasn't quite accurate. He wanted very much to crush her then and there, it was just that he wanted something else more. So much more. Enough to drive him to this. Dirtying his hands, personally.

He was very lost in thought that he didn't notice the girl spoke until after she had finished talking. He snapped his gaze back to her in surprise, and partially in annoyance that she had interrupted his tangent. "What was that?"

"Whose face do you see?" she asked the question like she was afraid of the answer. He took a moment to earnestly study her face. She seemed sincere. Could it be possible that she didn't know? He chuckled again. This was too perfect.

"It's immaterial," he answered. "And I am being dreadfully rude." He sat back on his heels and for the first time allowed the girl to slowly raise herself into a sitting position as well. She hissed at the pain when she moved, but was determined to sit, nonetheless. He suspected it was a power thing. Something about being vertical gave these people the strangest feeling of reckless confidence. They were always so much more cooperative when they were flat on the ground. Such strange creatures.

"After all," he continued, "here I am talking and talking and I haven't even asked your name." After all, something about having a name just made the whole conversation more intimate, he felt. You couldn't be really intimidating without a name. Humans especially. When he used their names they tensed up and shivered just beautifully. It was wonderful sport. And, if introductions meant he had a chance to recite his speech, then that was simply a bonus.

He smiled to himself at the possibility. It really was a good speech.

But she didn't answer him. She looked back at him blankly, without saying a word. What was it going to take? The defiance was almost cute at first, but it was fast annoying him. "Oh, come, dear. You were so talkative a moment ago." She remained stubbornly silent, some pathetic attempt at rebellion. "Very well, let me make you an offer. You give me your name and I'll give you mine."

"I know you already. You're demon."

He gave her the sort of smile he assumed was traditionally reserved for small children. "Demon is my race, not my name. Calling me demon is the equivalent of me calling you human all day long."

She cast her eyes down, whether in fear or embarrassment, he couldn't tell. Finally, grudgingly, she quietly answered, "Zelda."

"Zelda," he repeated, watching her cringe involuntarily as he whispered her name. He smiled. Finally it was time. "Pretty. I am known as the Demon Lord Ghirahim. Normally, I insist on being addressed by my full title. But, considering who you are and considering who I am..." He twirled his hands about as he spoke, and in spite of herself, Zelda inched closer. He could tell she was hoping he would give up a little bit of information. She would be sorely disappointed. "And considering what terribly good friends I'm sure we'll become, I suppose it's only fair that I allow you to call me simply by my first name. A show of trust as it were." Suddenly, he was right in front of her face. She hadn't even seen him move. "Zelda," he whispered. She screamed in shock and tumbled backwards, and then screamed in pain as her wound split open again.

"Careful," he reminded her, in an offhand manner. "Don't hurt yourself."

Slowly, painfully she righted herself. Her face was still in a hard grimace that revealed the extent of her pain, but she didn't comment. Her pride wouldn't allow it. "You move fast," she finally managed to gasp.

"It's a trick of the trade, dear one. Now turn around and let me look at that." She stared at him with a look of absolute terror that was positively adorable, before he clarified. "Your wound."

This didn't reassure her an ounce, but she turned around anyway, and let him touch the gash in her back. She hissed in pain when his fingers came in contact with the painful injury. He in turned hissed in annoyance, when his fingers came back bloody. The wound was gushing again.

"You must be more careful, pet," he warned her, as he wiped some of the excess blood away. "You could get hurt. And that would be a terrible shame, wouldn't it."

She wanted to remind him whose fault it was that she was hurt in the first place, but kept her mouth shut.

"We'll have to do something about this. But it doesn't matter too much," he continued nonchalantly, "And I believe your little friend has come to help you out."

Zelda jerked in surprise when he mentioned her friends. Immediately her mind sprung back to her friends at the academy. But that was insane. They wouldn't have come for her. They couldn't have.

"Come out, little one," Ghirahim called to no one Zelda could see. "Come out, before I lose my patience."

There was a squeak of alarm from somewhere to Zelda's right. Her head swiveled around just in time to see a rustle in the nearby bushes. Suddenly, a little furry head popped out, followed by a round furry body.

"Machi!" Zelda almost screamed. She leapt to her feet in spite of the pain, something she hadn't realized she was capable of, and made to run towards the creature. Instead, she felt Ghirahim's hand whip out and grab her arm, displaying once again his inhuman capacity for speed. His grip was strong, stronger than she anticipated, and she quickly slowed to a halt. Instead, she called out to the tiny creature from where she was, some thirty feet away.

"Machi! What are you doing here?" By now the hordes of monsters had noticed the little creature as well. A few of them made gestures of hunger, but none dared step forward to attack the Kikwi. Not with the Master so close and in such a capricious mood.

Machi didn't make a move to answer. It seemed too terrified to make a sound. After a few moments of impatience, Ghirahim decided he was tired of waiting. He made a strange gesture, something Zelda didn't recognize, and suddenly Machi leapt into the air with a squeal, as though something had bitten him, although Zelda couldn't see what.

It ran forward, shrieking, before tumbling to a stop at Zelda's feet. Instantly, it curled over and popped its leaves up into the air, in a sorely misguided attempt at camouflage. Zelda's heart raced to see the little Kikwi, who walked straight into the lion's den. She had never been so touched in her life, to know that it cared about her that much. More gratitude filled her heart than she imagined was possible, so naturally the first words out of her mouth were, "Machi, you idiot. Why did you come back?"

"Careful, girl, you'll scare the poor thing," Ghirahim informed her condescendingly. However, after a solid minute in which the Kikwi refused to move, Ghirahim finally gave up. Gently, he kicked at the little creature. Zelda was surprised at how soft his touch was before she looked at his face and saw the grimace painted across his countenance. He was plainly disgusted that he had to touch that thing at all.

A part of Zelda was deeply offended by that, although she couldn't quite fathom why.

However, the kick seemed to have done the trick, and the Kikwi sat back up and, timidly, offered up its meager tribute to the Demon Lord. Berries. Red berries.

Zelda blinked in surprise. She recognized the healing berries that the Kikwi carried with it, the same berries that it had brought her the night before. Had Machi really come all the way back just to give her some berries? Suddenly, she felt as though she could cry for the noble, useless sacrifice.

Ghirahim bent down and delicately selected one of the berries from the Kikwi's grasp. Pinching it delicately between his fingers, he turned to look at Zelda's wound. She faced resolutely away from him, refusing to acknowledge what he was doing, even as he walked around to stand beside her. He pressed the berry into the bloody gash, earning a gasp of pain from the girl as the skin of the berry broke and the juices fell onto the broken skin. A few strings of skin began to knit themselves together on her back. With his fingers, he tore the newly formed skin apart again, and pushed his fingers deeper into the wound, feeling the girl spasm beneath his touch. Much to her credit, she remained standing, however and did not scream. It was an impressive feat, for such a soft child.

This time, he squeezed the juice much deeper into the wound, watching as muscle and sinew, and some other parts that he didn't care to name began to reform. He nodded slowly, acknowledging the berry's power. If he worked his way from the inside out, he might be able to fix her. It would be extremely painful, for her that is, but it would set her straight.

"They'll do. You're going to want to lie down, girl," he told her, withdrawing for a second. It wasn't so much her pain that he cared about, but rather that he needed gravity as his ally if he was going to complete this operation and get the juice as far inside as possible. She obeyed without question. The pain of his fingers inside her back had knocked the air from her lungs and she couldn't seem to get enough air to say anything.

He knelt over her and, without so much as looking at the Kikwi, gestured to the ground beside him. "Put them there and wait," he ordered, not looking up from his work to see if the creature complied.

For a while it was hard going. It was difficult to keep the wound open with his bare hands far enough that he could get at the worst of the injuries and yet not tear the newly healed flesh. The pain was apparently bad for the girl. Every time he touched her now, even lightly, her muscles would seize and she would writhe just a little. This would be so much easier if she would just fall unconscious and yet she remained awake. He wondered if it was a survival instinct. Perhaps, she thought that if she fell asleep, she would never wake up, so her body refused to let her doze. It was possible.

He worked for a long time, caring for her wounds. His fingers and his clothes were bloody. So were hers, but that was nothing new. His work, now, was feverish as he split berry after berry over her injury. It all got so much worse before it got better. Yet, the effects were worth it. Her breathing was becoming more normal. Her skin felt slightly warmer. His touch caused less flinching each time he returned. That was good. In fact, he was becoming very much aware of every single movement her body made. Perhaps it was something about having his fingers moving beneath her flesh. It made him feel like a puppeteer, orchestrating her very motions from the inside.

That was why he noticed when she suddenly stiffened. When her head tilted up and just the smallest angle, and her arms pulled back a fraction of an inch. He kept the pressure on her back just enough to seem like he was still working, but tilted his head a little to see her face. He saw her mouth two short words while she didn't realize he was watching. "Machi. Run."

Even as the words came out, even as the creature looked at her in confusion. Even as the idea was formulating, he called on his magic and cut it off. Suddenly, a bright orange barrier sprung up before the forest, blocking off the easiest escape route. Zelda jerked back in surprise, much to his amusement.

"Did you say something?" he asked mockingly. She shifted around to glare at him, which only made him smile more. She was moving, apparently without too much pain. He only to seal the last layers of flesh at this point and he was done. Positively wonderful. The act of healing this human was an exhausting one. It was really quite pathetic how weak the human body was. But it didn't matter now.

Apparently, she noticed her recovery, too, because she stood up slowly, surprised by her own maneuverability. He stood up with her, careful to shadow her in case she decided to do something stupid again. The Kikwi stood, too, but it didn't make much of a difference since his full height was not much higher than his sitting height. Zelda looked down on Machi and then back up at the man before her.

"Just let him go," she whispered.

"The Kikwi?"

"Yes. Please."

He pretended to consider it a moment. "And why should I do that?"

"He hasn't done anything to you. He just helped you. He brought you those berries."

"Strictly speaking, he helped you, but point taken. Still, berry-finding skills aside, it seems to me that he's doing a fantastic job right now as a hostage wouldn't you agree?"

"Please don't do this."

"No."

Zelda paused and glared at the demon lord. He smiled, clearly enjoying it.

She had to fight to keep in a smile of her own. Apparently, she was fooling him. Trying to keep her breathing slow, and not give away her plan, she dropped to her knees before him and begged.

"I'll do anything, just leave Machi alone. Please."

There was a desperation in her voice that he found immensely amusing. He hadn't expected her to resort to begging this quickly, but he'd play it for what it was worth.

"See, now you've gone and just shown your hand there, girl. If you're willing to do anything right now, for me to let him go, then chances are, if I kept him, you'd be willing to do anything for me forever to keep him safe. Now tell me, girl, why exactly should I let him go?"

She looked up at him in horror. He knew that he had won. He was positive. He did not expect what came next. She threw herself at him, grabbing him firmly around the legs. From her position down low, she was able to suddenly pull him off balance. He came crashing to the ground and dragged her with him, but she clung to his calves for dear life.

His surprise bought him the valuable seconds that Zelda's plan needed. He missed the little Kikwi as it darted off in an unexpected direction. Just as, a few minutes before, in his haste to put up the barrier he had missed the last of the words Zelda whispered to Machi, the crux of her plan.

Machi. Run. Lake.

The forest was not the only way out of the clearing, and Machi was running headlong towards the other. Ghirahim, however, struggling to pull the girl's arms from around his legs didn't notice this until the creature was very nearly there. His hordes stood watching, unmoving, still petrified from his previous mood swings to make a move.

'Idiots,' he thought to himself before ordering out loud, "Stop him!" The monsters sprung into action, charging at the little fur ball. But Machi had a lot more experience at running then the monsters did. His lead was strong enough that he reached the lake, and was already swimming towards salvation, by the time the monsters reached full speed.

That was when several things happened at once. Ghirahim's eyes widened as he suddenly realized what was going to happen. He tried to teleport to the shoreline, to stop his advancing hordes, but with the girl still clinging to him, she was dragged alongside him. With her added weight, he was pulled back towards the ground, lying exposed as his hordes charged. The sudden press of monsters upon him, monsters running at full speed, was too much for even him to stop with such short notice. They came at him and the girl. A few of the smarter ones tried desperately to stop, but the pressure of the crowd behind them was too great. An unlucky few fell to the ground and had their skulls crushed by the tide. A few more were flung forward haphazardly. Still more simply continued running.

At the last second, Ghirahim summoned a barrier around himself, and looked down at his legs, only to realize that the girl had somehow slipped away and rolled two or three feet into the lake. The first of the monsters hit the water, followed by the second. There was moment of hesitation, before waves began to whip around them.

The water dragon, rested and prepared, sensed that the demons were again entering her domain and was ready to take revenge on the invaders. The water lashed out at the creatures, bulldozing the entire crowd. Ghirahim struggled to stand in the onslaught, even his barriers having trouble withstanding the pressure. He could no longer see the spirit maiden or the Kikwi, and he didn't have the strength to press farther into the water. He could only hold out and wait, praying that the spirit maiden was still alive when it was over.

Praying. That was something he was starting to do more and more of lately. Oh, how he was coming to despise humans.

* * *

><p>The water whipped Zelda around as she was pulled under. The air left her lungs and she tried, desperately, to swim to the surface. But there was a current dragging her down. A very strong current. In a moment of lucid thought, she managed to open her eyes long enough to see that Machi was being pulled around with her. He wasn't moving. With one hand, she reached out and managed to snag a bit of fur on the little creature's head, dragging it to her and holding it close and they were pulled farther and farther underwater. The last tendrils of sun disappeared from their view and they were plunged into complete darkness.<p>

The pressure was killing her, even faster than the lack of air, the immense pressure in her ears made her want to scream. She knew it was the end. She was positive. Just as Zelda expected to black out, light returned from nowhere. More importantly, so did air. She gasped, quickly as she could manage, feeling her lungs inflate and the pressure lift. She doubled over, crying, breathing, so fantastically alive.

Beside her, Machi was doing the same, hacking desperately as he refilled his lungs.

"Well," a deep, feminine voice boomed, "You're not what I was expecting."

Zelda and Machi looked up in surprise. What she saw made her knees go weak. If she had been standing, she was sure that she would have fallen to the ground. It was unmistakable, what she was seeing.

The water dragon.

* * *

><p>Wow, that was a long one. I think that was my longest chapter yet. Sorry that took so long to post. I would have updated sooner, except that both this story and Stalemate were on chapters that are really heavy with herovillain interaction, which I am horrible at. I can do heroes on their own and villains on their own, but put them in a room together and they both morph into bland blobs of bran cereal.

Stalemate will hopefully be updated in a few days, when I successfully un-cerealify my characters.

Also, if this chapter has taught me anything, it's that we should all be thankful for local anasthetic.

As always, read, review, enjoy, etc.

'Till next time

Ornamental Reciprocity


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